Taylor Swift Says First Meeting With Eddie Redmayne Was ‘a Nightmare’

• Taylor Swift said her first encounter with Eddie Redmayne was “a nightmare.”
• Swift told Graham Norton she was embarrassed during a screen test for “Les Misérables.”
• She said they made her wear a “full 19th-century street urchin costume” and painted her teeth brown.

Taylor Swift said that her first encounter with Eddie Redmayne “became a nightmare” after she was forced to dress like a “19th-century street urchin.”

During her appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” airing Friday in the UK, Swift recalled her audition for the 2012 Oscar-winning movie “Les Misérables.”

Swift said that she knew she wasn’t going to get a part because she had “the look of Cosette and the range vocally of Éponine” so fit into neither role. However, the casting director offered her a screen test with Redmayne, who would go on to play Marius.

“They asked if I would like to go to London to do a screen test with Eddie, who is one of my favorite actors, and I thought, ‘This isn’t an experience I am going to get again in my life,’ so I said yes,” Swift said.

However, when the singer got to the screen test, she was forced to wear a costume that made her “look like death.”

“When I got there they put me in full 19th-century street urchin costume and told me they were going to paint my teeth brown and I was like, ‘You are going to do that after I meet Eddie Redmayne, right?'” the “Midnights” pop star said. “But no, they made me look like death and it became a nightmare.  When I met Eddie I didn’t open my mouth to speak.”

Redmayne, who was sitting next to Swift on “The Graham Norton Show,” said that the screen test was also embarrassing for him.

“I thought we would just be singing off each other — I didn’t know we would be in each other’s arms,” the actor said. “My overriding memory of it is that I had had pizza and garlic dough balls beforehand and all I could think about was my garlic breath while Taylor was dying in my arms and I was trying to show emotion.” 

The role of Éponine eventually went to Samantha Barks, while Cosette was played by Amanda Seyfried.

However, Tom Hopper, who directed the movie, later cast Swift in his following musical movie adaptation “Cats.”

In 2019, Hopper told Vulture that he was “very close” to casting Swift as Éponine.

“Ultimately, I couldn’t quite believe Taylor Swift was a girl people would overlook,” Hooper said. “So it didn’t quite feel right for her for the most flattering reason.”

Hopper said that he came back to Swift when the opportunity arose to direct “Cats.”

“I wrote to her and just said, ‘Would you like to meet? Would you like to see the world I’m creating?'” the director said. “And I did a presentation. Eve Stewart had these wonderful paintings she did of the world. I had a 10-second clip of a dancer with fur, lifelike. That was my pitch. She loved it and was very gracious and really supportive from then on.”